When you order a suit, do you say, “Don’t send sizes 32, 34, 36, 40, 42? And don’t send cotton, silk, rayon or leather?” Of course not! Instead you tell them what you want and that automatically eliminates the rest.
And yet people often do not understand this in religion. They say, “But God did not say NOT to use instrumental music in worship.” Or, God did not say, “He that is NOT baptized shall be lost.” Or, “He did not say NOT to gamble, or NOT to do the modern dances, etc.” Or, “He did not say NOT to smoke or chew tobacco.” Or, “He did not say NOT to use alcohol as a social beverage.” Or, “He did not say NOT to dress in immodest apparel and NOT to go mixed swimming.”
No, that is right, but he DID tell us WHAT He wanted (Ephesians 5:19; Mark 16:16; Ephesians 4:28; Galatians 5:19-24). God tells us to “abide” in the things which are taught in the Scriptures (II Timothy 3:14), and that “whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (II John 9). Let us resolve to do the exact will of God without addition or subtraction and without trying to pull anything in through the “NOT HOLE”!
-via "The Better Way," Spring, TX